Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T18:39:13.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Beyond personal control: The role of developing self-control abilities in the behavioral constellation of deprivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Sabine Doebel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309. sabine.doebel@colorado.edulaura.michaelson@colorado.edumunakata@colorado.eduwww.colorado.edu/munakata/
Laura E. Michaelson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309. sabine.doebel@colorado.edulaura.michaelson@colorado.edumunakata@colorado.eduwww.colorado.edu/munakata/
Yuko Munakata
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309. sabine.doebel@colorado.edulaura.michaelson@colorado.edumunakata@colorado.eduwww.colorado.edu/munakata/

Abstract

We agree with Pepper & Nettle that personal control is important in understanding people's willingness to engage in future-oriented behavior. However, this does not imply that self-control abilities play no role, for self-control abilities do influence whether individuals engage in future-oriented behavior. Personal control may also shape the development of self-control abilities, so contrasting the two may be a false dichotomy.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bierman, K. L., Nix, R. L., Greenberg, M. T., Blair, C. & Domitrovich, C. E. (2008) Executive functions and school readiness intervention: Impact, moderation, and mediation in the Head Start REDI program. Development and Psychopathology 20(3):821–43.Google Scholar
Casey, B. J., Somerville, L. H., Gotlib, I. H., Ayduk, O., Franklin, N. T., Askren, M. K., Jonides, J., Berman, M. G., Wilson, N. L., Teslovich, T., Glover, G., Zayas, V., Mischel, W. & Shoda, Y. (2011) Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(6):14998–5003.Google Scholar
Diamond, A. (2012) Activities and programs that improve children's executive functions. Current Directions in Psychological Science 21(5):335–41.Google Scholar
Doebel, S. & Munakata, Y. (2017) Social influences on self-control: Children delay gratification when their group does. Paper presented at the 2017 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Austin, TX.Google Scholar
Duckworth, A. L., Tsukayama, E. & May, H. (2010) Establishing causality using longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling: An illustration predicting achievement from self-control. Social Psychological and Personality Science 1(4):311–17.Google Scholar
Hackman, D. A., Gallop, R., Evans, G. W. & Farah, M. J. (2015) Socioeconomic status and executive function: Developmental trajectories and mediation. Developmental Science 18(5):686702.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1998) Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2(10):389–98.Google Scholar
Kidd, C., Palmeri, H. & Aslin, R. N. (2013) Rational snacking: Young children's decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability. Cognition 126(1):109–14.Google Scholar
Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P. J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlström, K., Gillberg, C. G., Forssberg, H. & Westerberg, H. (2005) Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD – A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 44(2):177–86.Google Scholar
Lawson, G. M., Duda, J. T., Avants, B. B., Wu, J. & Farah, M. J. (2013) Associations between children's socioeconomic status and prefrontal cortical thickness. Developmental Science 16(5):641–52.Google Scholar
Lee, W. S. & Carlson, S. M. (2015) Knowing when to be “rational”: Flexible economic decision making and executive function in preschool children. Child Development 86(5):1434–48.Google Scholar
Michaelson, L., de la Vega, A., Chatham, C. H. & Munakata, Y. (2013) Delaying gratification depends on social trust. Frontiers in Psychology 4:355. Available at: http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00355.Google Scholar
Michaelson, L. E. & Munakata, Y. (2016) Trust matters: Seeing how an adult treats another person influences preschoolers' willingness to delay gratification. Developmental Science 19(6):1011–19.Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., Houts, R., Poulton, R., Roberts, B. W., Ross, S., Sears, M. R., Thomson, W. M. & Caspi, A. (2011) A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(7):2693–98.Google Scholar
Noble, K. G., Houston, S. M., Kan, E. & Sowell, E. R. (2012) Neural correlates of socioeconomic status in the developing human brain. Developmental Science 15(4):516–27.Google Scholar
Raver, C. C., Jones, S. M., Li-Grining, C., Zhai, F., Bub, K. & Pressler, E. (2011) CSRP's impact on low-income preschoolers' preacademic skills: Self-regulation as a mediating mechanism. Child Development 82(1):362–78.Google Scholar
Sameroff, A. J., ed. (2009) The transactional model. In: The transactional model of development: How children and contexts shape each other, pp. 321. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, L. B. & Thelen, E. (2003) Development as a dynamic system. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(8):343–48.Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D. (2015) Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain. Developmental Review 38:5568.Google Scholar